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Another little project for the (Lockheed) Skunk Works to draw attention away from their main technological "cash cow"....the Aurora spyplane. Mach 6 is fast but doesn't cut the mustard with the Aurora. The GOES West satellite, a few years ago, tracked (what they suspect was) the Aurora after it took off from Nevada and flew across the US. It leaves a contrail they call "donuts on a string"...it's due to its propulsion system which they believe is a methane/liquid H2 hybrid pulse engine. The contrail was of an aircraft flying at 150000 feet at a speed they estimated at around 8000mph. Of course, the DoD and the US Airforce deny such a plane exists, but there have been too many occurrences of sighted contrails, unusual sonic booms, a number of eyewitness accounts and overheard military radio traffic (an aircraft with the call sign "Dark Star" ) for it not to have some credible substance behind the reports. The Aurora is a manned aircraft. There's a possibility that they may have this SR72 as either a side project UAV spyplane or it maybe the new main project if the Aurora has been cancelled for some reason. A scale back of sorts. Or the Aurora may have been used as a technological demonstrator, a precursor to newer designs which the SR72 may be.
Adrian, I agree with you to a point. China and Russia are a good 30 years behind the US. They may try to emulate them but they have a long way to go and don't have the technology, yet, to build such a craft themselves. The F22 is a design which is at least 30 years old itself. The US Airforce have been looking for a replacement for the F15 in the air superiority role since at least the mid 90's. The F35 isn't all that much younger, itself. Ben Rich, the former VP of the Lockheed Skunks Works admitted as much himself, before he passed away in 1994, that they had developed technology which was that far ahead of the F22 and such that no one would believe it if they saw it. That no one would probably ever see any of it unless the need arose because of the secrecy behind it all. And if you're wondering how they fund it? Well, US DoD "misplaced" $2.3 trillion in unaccounted money between 1999-2001, and that isn't even the start of it. Earlier this year, they and a number of other departments had to account for more than $9 trillion which has gone "missing" in the last 5-10 years, but mostly from the DoD. They get away with it because those that are misappropriating the funds own the businesses involved, are supported by certain elements within the military and own the politicians involved. Plus, they have a largely ignorant and apathetic populace who's more interested in their reality TV and who wins the next world series than they are about what's going on.
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